"He couldn't wait to get back to work, so he could help at the bombing site," says Janice.

Jim was helping someone on August 5^th when, in a moment, life changed. It had rained a little and the roads were slick. A driver on Interstate 40 had lost control of her car and struck a concrete barrier. Jim and his partner, Steve Shipman, parked their squad truck in the emergency lane and hopped out to help. Capt. Jack Fry arrived at the scene with another crew in a ladder truck. Within moments, there was the sound of another jarring crash. A second car had spun out of control and slammed into the back of the ladder truck. Jim and Steve were between the concrete barrier and the first car helping the driver when, again, they heard the screeching of tires. When they looked up, a third car was careening toward them.

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On a usual day, Janice Clark would have driven right by the site of the crash. But, on this day she took the day's business receipts to deposit them at the bank, then went on to Jim's parents' home to pick up Madison, their 13-year-old daughter. They ate dinner there then left for home. When they arrived, Janice did what she always did first, she listened to messages. Most of the messages were routine, but then she heard assistant fire chief Harvey Harper's voice. It took her by surprise. Harvey's voice was somber but it had a sense of urgency in it. He said there had been an accident. He urged Janice to page him, or call 911.

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One look told Capt. Jack Fry that Jim and Steve had been badly injured. His crew began emergency medical treatment while he called for an ambulance and more firefighters to help at the scene. The ambulance rushed Jim and Steve to Midwest City Regional Hospital, where a group of their fellow firefighters had already gathered.

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Janice called 911. The voice on the other end told her that Jim had been hurt in an accident and urged that she go to the hospital. No sooner had she hung up than Jim's dad called to confirm that Jim had been hurt. Janice was still calm. "I'm not the type person to get upset unless I know for sure."

Janice called her best friend, Ellen Olsen. It seemed that Janice and Jim and been friends with Ellen and Rob Olsen forever. She knew that Madison could stay there while she went to the hospital. Ellen wanted to go with Janice.

While Janice remained calm, Ellen was frantic. She told Janice she had a feeling Jim had been hurt very badly. As they walked through the emergency room door, Janice was met by firefighter Ron Donnelly. Ron told her as gently as he could that Jim was in very bad shape.

Jim's fellow firefighters crowded around his bed in the emergency room. Janice was reluctant to join them. "I didn't know whether to go back on the chance I would see something awful," she remembers. "I decided just to wait it out."

She regrets her decision. Jim was still conscious when she arrived, but by the time she summoned the courage to go into his room, he had lapsed into a coma. "I never saw him awake again," she says. "Maybe I would have seen him awake one last time."

Janice couldn't recall exactly what they had talked about that day. Jim called her throughout the day when he was on duty. They talked about "stuff", she says. Their 24^th anniversary had been on August 2^nd. They weren't able to celebrate then, but Jim had planned a special date for Friday.

Jim Clark was more than a firefighter. He was a poet, a romantic. "It was the best part of him," Janice says. He had a bachelor's degree in English and was working on his master's. He wanted to teach when he retired from the fire service.

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Fifty-two-year-old Jacqui Redman shared Jim Clark's love of poetry, and she shared his dilemma. She, too, was clinging to life on that Thursday in August. Jacqui had suffered a heart attack in 1995. She had had five bypass surgeries since then. A balloon pump had been keeping her alive, assisting her heart in pumping blood to the rest of her body. She was in the ICU at Integris Baptist Medical Center. Twelve days before, the doctors had changed her status on the heart transplant waiting list to 1A, the most critical. Her husband, Gary, and 21-year-old son, Jason, waited and prayed.

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Janice struggled to understand when one of the doctors told her that Jim had very little brain activity. What exactly did it mean? She asked that he explain it to her again and again. He said Jim's brain was swelling inside his skull. It was not a good sign. They waited all day Friday for the swelling to go down. On Saturday morning, the doctor told Janice he didn't think Jim was going to get any better. She thought, "This is it."

As Janice watched the respirator force air into her husband's lungs and looked at the tangle of tubes and wires running in and out of his body, she realized that his death was inevitable. She made a decision. "I knew that if something happened to Jim," says Janice, "I wanted to donate his organs. And, there was never any doubt that he would have wanted to do that."

When Jim was declared brain dead, Janice Clark signed the donation consent form, said goodbye to her husband of 24 years and walked out of the hospital. She left Jim with his fellow firefighters, who had stood a round-the-clock vigil and would continue to keep watch until the organ recovery was complete.

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As Jim Clark's life came to an end, a heart surgeon was telling Jacqui Redman that her new life was about to begin. She was to receive Jim Clark's heart.

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When Janice Clark was told that Jim's heart would save someone's life, she was relieved. "I knew then that it was not all for nothing."

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The Jim Clark story was one of the most publicized stories of organ donation and transplantation ever in Oklahoma. The day after the transplant surgery, a news conference was held at Baptist Medical Center with Jacqui Redman's husband and surgeon. Later, reporters went to Jacqui's hospital room. She had already watched much of the news media coverage. She knew it was Jim Clark's heart that beat strongly in her chest. "Jim had a very special heart," said Redman, "one that was created for two people." Jacqui said that one day she hoped to meet Jim Clark's family. The next day, a woman walked into her hospital room. She said, "Hi, my name is Janice Clark. I just came to see how you're doing."

A few days later, Jacqui and Gary Redman celebrated their 25^th anniversary.